Food retailers Marks & Spencer and Waitrose have both scored top marks in a global annual farm animal welfare benchmark. The benchmark can be used as a tool for investors to manage risk and return within the food sector. The Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare (BBFAW) is now...

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) should alter the way it communicates and publishes reports to make them more accessible and user friendly, according to governments. The IPCC publishes reports on the current state of scientific knowledge and its potential environmental and socio-economic impacts, which are used by...

Without water efficiency measures, recently announced reductions to water bills will be cancelled out because of the challenge of dealing with long term water shortage, according to a report from think tank Green Alliance. The report – Cutting the cost of water: the case for improving water efficiency in...

Only a small minority of ‘powerbrokers’ that control the global supply chains that drive over half of tropical deforestation are equipped to tackle bold zero deforestation commitments, according the Forest 500 rankings. Among these are UK based Reckitt Benckiser, Unilever and HSBC. The Global Canopy Programme, which developed the...

Bees and other pollinator species thrive as well in towns and cities as they do in farms and nature reserves, according to a new study. The University of Bristol led the study, which has been published in the Proceeding of the Royal Society B. The team of researchers compared...

Geoengineering should not yet be deployed as a solution to climate change or replace cutting emissions, according to the US National Academy of Science. The organisation called for more research into the area and said the consideration of such technology should serve as a “wake up call”. Geoengineering involves...

The government must attract £600 million from the private sector to fund its commitment to protect 300,000 properties from floods, a group of MPs have warned. The government has cut spending on flood defences in recent years and had aimed to gain investment from the private sector to supplement...

London has been named the second most sustainable city in the world, beaten only by Germany’s Frankfurt, in an index that explores social, environmental and economic sustainability challenges and solutions. The Sustainable Cities Index, from Arcadis, examined 50 cities from 31 countries and ranked each one across three pillars...

Purchasing a Valentine’s card for your loved one on the UK high street could contribute to illegal logging and deforestation, the WWF has warned, due to loopholes in EU regulation. WWF purchased a number of cards from high street retailers and found that three, from Card Factory, Clintons and...

Climate change activists have criticised the need to hire a private firm in order to hold a protest, despite police previously carrying out the role, arguing it means they must “pay to protest”. According to the Guardian, the organisers of the Time to Act march, have been told that...

Scientists looking at evidence showing the level of atmospheric CO2 millions of years ago say the data supports climate change predictions from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The research team, led by scientists at the University of Southampton, analysed records showing the CO2 content of the Earth’s...

The Labour party has pledged to protect forests and green spaces if they win the general election and have heavily criticised the current government for failing to stop environmental degradation. Speaking at wildlife charity RSPB’s head office, Maria Eagle MP, Labour’s shadow environment secretary, said, “David Cameron promised us...

The UN’s World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) has ranked 2014 as the hottest year on record and noted that 14 of the 15 warmest years have now occurred in this century, demonstrating the continuing warming trend. Average global air temperatures over land and sea surface were 0.57C above the long-term...

The Earth’s crust under Iceland is ‘rebounding’ as climate change leads to the ice caps on the island melting, according to research conducted by the University of Arizona. The paper argues that the “current fast uplift” of the Icelandic crust is a result of accelerated melting of the island’s...

A new study has found that the world’s urban areas are increasingly experiencing heatwaves, potentially leading to huge issues for public health and infrastructure. The research, which has been published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, found that prolonged periods of extreme hot days have significantly increased in over...